


Mother's day

by firstbankofchickpea



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batman: The Long Halloween - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 19:46:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9563717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstbankofchickpea/pseuds/firstbankofchickpea
Summary: I am so very afraid And I’d much rather like it if you were afraid instead.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based entirely in the universe of Batman: The Long Halloween. If you haven't read that, then you will probably be really confused with this version of Jonathan Crane. For those of you that have, you may remember a moment in chapter eight when Batman states that Jonathan Crane strangled his mother on mother's day many years ago. This fic is based on that bit of info. Hopefully I have done Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb's version of Scarecrow due justice.

The front door was locked and he had no key. The heavy rain made it difficult to see through the windows. But he knew she was inside. Jonathan Crane rapped softly on the door and waited. There was no answer. ‘How cruel’ Jonathan lamented to himself. It was Mother’s Day and she didn’t even see fit to take her own son out of the rain. Jonathan knocked slowly at the door. He chanted to the beat of his knocks. _“Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. Little Jonny_ _wants to play. Rain, rain, go to Spain. Never show your face again.”_ Finally, a shrill voice answered. “Go away, Jonny!” It didn’t sound like she would be the least bit accommodating. He would have to show himself in.

 

 _“Diddle, diddle, dumpling. My son Jon went to bed with his trousers on.”_ He whispered to himself as he selected a decent sized stone lying in the dirt across from the walkway beneath him. _“One shoe off and one shoe on. Diddle, diddle,_ _dumpling. My son Jon.”_ Rallying it up, he smashed the rock into the front window. He could hear his mother screaming as he limbered his lithe frame through the jagged hole in the glass. _“Here’s the church, here’s the steeple. Open the doors,_ _and see all the people.”_

Jonathan’s mother stood in the middle of the kitchen looking quite horrified. Jonathan strode closer to her. “It was very unkind of you not to answer the door for me, mother.” At the sound of her son’s voice she regained her composure and shrieked. “Get out!” Jonathan cocked his head to the side, as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. _“Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.”_ His mother stepped closer to him. She seethed. “Shut up! Shut up and get out of my house, you freak!”

 

For a moment, Jonathan cowered backwards. It was a reflex. It almost felt as if he were a small child again and she was about to strike him, just as she had so many years ago. But he wasn’t a child any longer. He had nothing to fear from her any longer. _“Your house is on fire and your children are gone.”_ In one swift movement, he stepped forward and struck her across the face. She yelped as she fell backwards on to shards of broken glass. Ignoring the glass, Jonathan knelt down and looked her dead in the eyes.

 

“I lost my job today, mother. They fired me. That job was my whole life. It was everything I had and now it’s gone. I am absolutely petrified and I thought perhaps my sweet loving mother would be able to comfort me.” His mother clutched her broken face as she stared at him in abject terror. “But then, as I recall, you have never been very loving have you?” His mother shrunk back as he reached out to touch her face.

 

His voice quivered with emotion. “I am so very afraid.” His hand trailed down to her neck. “And I’d much rather like it if you were afraid instead.” His mother let out a choked scream as he seized her throat with his talon like fingers. She kicked out at him furiously, but she was unable to throw him off of her. For the first time in his whole life, his strength was insurmountable. He squeezed her throat and crooned to her. _“Bye baby bumpkin. Where’s Tony Lumpkin? My lady’s on her_ _death bed, for eating half a pumpkin.”_

 

His mother’s eyes bugged out of their sockets as she clawed at his hands. Her face turned bright red, and then a dusky blue as her struggles began to slow. It was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours until she finally laid still. Jonathan panted heavily as he let her go and stood up, straightening his coat and plucking shards of glass from his knees. His long overdue work had finally been completed. With his mind now unfettered by past trauma, he could begin his true life’s work.

 

Not giving another glance back at his mother’s brutalized body, Jonathan opened the front door and skulked out onto the walkway. His fear had lifted, as had the rain. He hummed and sang to himself as he put distance between himself and the house. _“Seesaw Margery daw. Jonny shall have a new master. He shall earn but a_ _penny a day, because he can’t work any faster.”_


End file.
